Gamelan Plesetan
Left: Multimedia concert at the UCSC Recital Hall
Gamelan Plesetan Members
no.e Parker, Sapto Raharjo
and Professor Rene T.A. Lysloff.
Right: Performance Installation of Gamelan Plesetan at Emergence2007: DANM MFA Exhibition
at the Santa Cruz Digital Media Factory.
(photo credits: Lyle Troxell and Luke Bullock)
The Gamelan Plesetan project joins both experimental and traditionally trained musicians together in live, non-idiomatic improvisational electro-acoustic gamelan multimedia performance. The concept of these events is rooted in my 14 years experience of organizing and playing live improvised electronic music at multimedia dance/art/music events that can be best described as modern day "Happenings" (in the spirit of Allan Kaprow) as part of the Bay Area
SemiPermanent Autonomous Zone (SPaZ) collective.
Gamelan Plesetan events are an expansion of my work with SPaZ to include musical forms and traditions outside of the electronic music genre, specifically, contemporary gamelan. Musicians trained in both these musics join together in a non-linear cross-cultural musical dialogue that ventures into uncharted musical territory. These musical "conversations" are an important aspect toward achieving mutual understanding and musical education between cultures.
An integral part of the multimedia performance are gamelan controlled visual projections using an interface called the Gamelan Lumina, developed at UCSC by Peter Elsea and Darryl Ferrucci. The Lumina (programmed in MAX/MSP/Jitter) uses the gamelan instruments to juxtapose and distort images of natural landscapes with those of
Gamelan Plestan reviewed in EyeCandy
The experience created during Gamelan Plesetan can best be described as a real-time audio/visual collage and achieves "a music of permutation that...conveys a sense of how conceptual art, contemporary technology, and timeless idealism might function together today" (Paul Miller, aka Dj Spooky, that Subliminal Kid, Rhythm Science, MIT Press, 2004, p 20).
For booking information and to obtain a Gamelan Plesetan CD, email no.e at sunflowrfish@graffiti.net, or contact@katabatik.org
Gamelan Lumina interface/controller programmed by no.e Parker, three point video projections, sonic landscape by Gamelan Plesetan, gamelan instruments, fabric, plastic tubing, wire, newspaper, plastic shopping bags, redwood duff.
The Exhibition at the Digtital Media Factory was highlighted with two improvisatory musical performances featuring Patrick Richey on tabla and other percussion, no.e and nx on electronic gamelan, spukkin as mixmaster, with guests Simon Hutchinson on samisen at the opening performance on the 8th, and Chris Microhausen on electronic vistas at the show on the 16th.
Outside the Circle
Inside the Circle
Click here to access the 97MB MP3 file from the performance on June 16th.
Past Performances
Installation Design for DANM MFA Thesis Show at Emergence 2007::
The visuals are generated entirely by the gamelan instruments and the Gamelan Lumina (programmed in MAX/MSP/Jitter); and projected from the three vantage points situated around the 360 degree projection surface.
- During musical performance, visuals are an inherent part of the musical improvisation--with the gamelan instruments acting as sound and visual generators.
- During times when a musical performance is not happening, the visuals projected will be controlled by the viewer--introducing many to their first physical contact with both the venerated gamelan instruments themselves, as well as interactive new media techniques.
The visual materials broken down into their three component parts:
A) Natural Landscapes, seemingly pristine and those affected by humans
B) Computer Waste/the "Recyling" that actually goes on with it
C) The audience generates their own 'mix' of A+B, using their bodies, the surveillence camera and the Lumina.
The viewer is invited into the ring to physically experience their role in the interplay between the above mentioned elements, by moving the body in front of the camera and playing with the gamelan instruments which control the video effects.
The mixture of these three elements creates a metaphor that addresses the viewer's conscious role in managing the balance between maintaining the beauty of our natural environment and the waste generated by our society's growing dependence on technology and its commodification.
On the surface, our dependence on technology is attractive, but the underlying layers that are a result of this dependence are made up of an increasing amount of toxic electronic waste.
The installation's cushions are also an attempt to bring the viewer closer to thinking about the level of comfort we have grown to assume.
The cushions which provide a seating area to view the installation are filled with recycled materials collected over a six month period and also found on site in the DMF's recycling bins.
Future Direction: the video projection surface as sculpture....